Today is the 13th.

So, of course it means it was in the stars. After the morning drive to the train station I committed myself to getting some of my sundry errands done. Put the laundry in, pick up and drop off the dry cleaning, back to the laundry to throw everything into the dryer, down to Tarrytown to pick up the mail (here’s where the day began to go awry).

When I came out I had a lot of trouble getting the car started.

Stopped to have breakfast and when I came out, the car just wouldn’t start. It’s hot out. I’m under the hood for about a half hour but, the car is just refusing to cooperate - it’s not going anywhere. So, here I am with a car full of dry cleaning, laundry supplies, laundry that doesn’t go in the dryer, mail, a good bundle. I call triple A and wait.

And wait...

...and wait.

Even though AAA indicated it would be an hour, we pass that milestone. My cell phone isn’t working because I hadn’t charged the battery and I get a chance to make two brief phonecalls to cancel the things I had planned for the day (city stuff). I’m wearing jeans and it’s real, real hot.

I had parked in a shady corner of the lot but, that still didn’t mean I avoided the usual curious passer by - “car stuck?”

No, I always sit in a parking lot on a swelteringly humid summer day with my hood up - it’s my idea of fun.

Finally I decide to find a pay phone and discover that most of the pay phones in the places I remember them being (Bella’s, the pizzeria, the laundromat) are now gone because everyone has cell phones. I figure on calling back AAA which told me if the tow hadn’t shown up by a certain time (a half hour earlier) to call them back. Of course the contact number I gave AAA isn’t working since I gave them my cell number and the phone isn’t charged so I can’t know if they’ve tried calling me back.

As I’m wandering about, looking for a phone, I see a flatbed from the tow company parked with the engine running across the street from where I am walking. Then I see a guy changing a tire on the van of the guy who runs the restaurant.

“Excuse me, I don’t mean to interrupt you.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m stuck over in the lot are you the person I’m waiting on?”

“Yeah, just give me a minute.”

The guy is squatted, legs around the tire as he uses the scissor jack to get the van off the ground. He’s sweating generously due to both the exertion and the oppressive heat.

“No problem, I’ll be by the car.”

He finishes with the tire and shortly there’s a flatbed in the parking lot. I push the car back (it was sideways on a hill but, I could manage), the car rolls back, gets lined up with the truck and then he loads it onto the flatbed. I watch the whole process trying to gauge if he’s an amicable sort or not.

Thankfully his truck has AC. It’s like a reprieve! I ask if I could use his cell phone (to arrange to get picked up at the dealership with all the laundry stuff) and he’s not really cool with that. I ask if we could possibly make a stop on the way and that’s also vetoed.

We stop off at a roadside payphone. I throw quarters in but, my call won’t go through. As I’m standing there I feel a sharp pain in my arm. There’s a wasp (which looked like a bee at first), floating around the phone. Upon greater observation, there’s several wasps around the payphone and they’re crawling in and out of some kind of space on the top of the metal sheath which surrounds the phone. I realize I’ve gotten stung. I look dumbly at my arm registering just that fact as the sting starts to let me know it’s there. A fat man in a van parked at the lakes (where the payphone was), sees me standing there with a befuddled look on my face and states, “Hey, watch out, there’s a bunch of wasps over there.”

Really.

I use an 800 number and make one call and get back into the air-conditioned comfort of the flatbed. I ride up and have a conversation with the driver about the worst accidents he’s seen (saw someone’s head chopped off). Which cars he tows the most (Audi’s and Saabs). Which cars he’s towed the least (Toyota’s and Honda’). He talks about the fact that people in SUV’s don’t know what they’re doing and shouldn’t use their four wheel drive (can’t control their vehicle in a skid situation). He points out some aggressive driving by other drivers along the way. He’s been doing this for fifteen years and likes not being in an office. He points out how the industry isn’t regulated and how you can be charged anything for a tow (this is a AAA tow which means it’s different). He also tells me that when you’re on the highway the state strictly regulates what a tow company can charge but, if you’re off in the shoulder or in the grass (because of a skid or some other mishap), you’re not legally on the highway and you can be charged anything.

It’s around 1pm when we roll into the dealership. My odyssey started at 7:30 in the morning with the trip to the train station. All I can think about is the orphaned clothes sitting idly in the dryer at the laundromat. I go in and chat with the service desk people at the dealership briefly asking them where they want me to have the car put (the sarcastic answer of the river isn’t appreciated as the car has been to the dealership 3 times in the last two months and it ultimately came to this).

The tow driver lowers the car and I push the car into the spot with him behind the wheel. I throw him a couple of bucks (even though we couldn’t make a stop, and I couldn’t use his phone). I know my ride isn’t coming anytime soon and when I ask where he’s going, he asks me where I’m headed and decides it would be okay to drop me off on his way back.

We chat more on the ride. He wants to stop for a hot dog at the roadside stand not far from the house and I offer to buy. I walk back in the door around 2pm, the phone is ringing and it’s the dealership letting me know my ride is at the dealership and where am I?

Later I wind up borrowing the other car and going down to claim the abandoned clothes, folding them in the over hot laundromat, which is now packed with people. One woman has even discovered that the laundry cart makes the perfect playpen for her young child who she has given some liquid in a container which the bored tot has decided to paint the floor with. The child wails at that perfect ear-shattering note that only children can hit which is ear piercing and unsettling.

A short jaunt back to the house returning the clothes and some foodstuffs (and a DVD or two) and back on the road again in the un air-conditioned car to go get the weekly fix of comics. Walking back in at 5pm.

All in all, it was a pretty good day.

Yeah, it was sweaty, hot and I didn’t do what I had originally planned but, everything got taken care of and what are you going to do when you run up against one of these kind of days anyway? Like the branch, it’s bend or break baby. I’m trying my damnedest to learn how to bend as I get older.